September 4 – December 9, 2024 Opening: September 12, 2024
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, first floor University of Pennsylvania
Material World is an exploration of the materiality of the book form. The challenge was for participating artists/binders was use non-traditional materials.
The artists are all members of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers. The DVC is one of ten chapters in the US and is centered in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware tri-state area with activities based in Philadelphia. Our diverse membership includes book artists, book conservators, fine binders, calligraphers, librarians, paper marblers, teachers, photographers, printmakers, and graphic designers from all over the US and Canada.
The DVC would like to thank Penn Libraries for hosting and the amazing exhibitions team Brittany Merriam, Ren Griffin, Leslie Goldman for their support and tireless efforts in making this exhibition happen. We would also like to thank Lynne Farrington for all her help and guidance with the all programming in connection with the exhibition.
Photos of the exhibit and opening >>>>>
Cindy Au Kramer
PVC’s Community (Plastic on Plastic), 2024
Acrylic paint, plastic, LED
“Pun on Dale Chihuly’s Glass on Glass series. Nod to PVA’s (bookbinding glue which is a type of plastic) role in bookbinding. Many thanks to Tex Kang, UPenn’s Education Commons, for sharing his knowledge, tools, and tips to bring artistic vision to reality.”
Alice Austin
Kingfisher One and Kingfisher Two, 2024
Mica and Tyvek
“Printing on mica was a challenge! It took a few attempts to get a good result. I hand-inked my linoleum blocks, placed the mica onto the inked blocks, and then ran the press roller over the blocks. I removed the mica carefully and then waited over a month for the ink to dry. I used an accordion of painted Tyvek for the spine of the book so that the birds would seem to fly.”
Alicia Bailey
Seeds 2, 2024
Pod book: seed pods, seed specimens, handmade paper, yarn (cotton/wool/nylon), Kevlar thread, copper wire, boiled cotton, dyes
“I inherited some large seed pods from my great Aunt Ruth in 1998, along with many other treasures from the natural world. Because Ruth was an inspiration and role model for me, it’s important to me to make use of these inherited treasures in ways that preserve their enticing characteristics. It took me a while to land on woven pages for the ‘text block’ of this book and was a far bigger challenge than I anticipated, especially since I first had to learn the basics of weaving.”
Kristin Balmer
Where Did the Week Go?, 2024
Aide-mémoire made with ivory recycled from piano keys, cork, metal arrows from old clocks, paint
According to the website Throughout History, “aide mémoires, popular during the 1700s and 1800s, were riveted booklets made of very thin slices of ivory, numbering between five to eight pages in length, and usually having the days of the week on the pages. They resided in a gentleman’s coat pocket or on a watch chain, in a lady’s handbag or hung from a chain on her chatelaine.”
Deborah Chodoff
Shojoji, 2024
Ceramic, silk, collages, broken incense burner
“Shojoji, a tanuki (racoon dog), is an animal associated with magical powers in Japanese folklore. A trickster and a shapeshifter, Shojoji is always hungry. After performing his mischief, he eats a big meal and pats his big belly, saying,
“Koi koi koi!” Shojoji is a favorite children’s song I remember from my early years. This ceramic shojoji was an incense burner with an opening in the back for placing the incense sticks and holes in the face for the fragrant smoke. I had used it for mosquito coils on the patio before it broke. Because it was such a relic of my childhood, I kept the pieces. Now it has shape-shifted into an artist book containing memories of my early childhood in Japan during the American occupation after World War II.”
Béatrice Coron
Fairies’ Wheel, 2018
Tyvek, etched copper and leather
“I always thought of the amusement park feature as “Fairies’ Wheel.” By chance when I saw it written as “Ferris” wheel, I was so disappointed that I made this book to keep my sense of wonder and build my own reality.”
Elizabeth Curren and Tina Hudak
Greenwich Bay Kites, 2024
Mixed media, assorted handmade paper, ephemera
“The original art incorporates acrylics, colored pencils, watercolors, and pen & ink and ephemera; some are digitally scanned. The kites consist of upcycled maps and assorted handmade papers, constructed with three-hole bindings. The porcelain lighthouse is a prize from the Red Rose Tea “Nautical Wonderland Collection, 2012.”
This assemblage honors the community of Buttonwoods, located on a peninsula in Warwick, Rhode Island (US). Constructed using a former cigar box, it is meant to be an interactive book. The format is upright with the schooner stamp at the top; the cover slides up to reveal the following: kites, bound as miniature books, that are suspended in the background; a map of Buttonwoods which unfolds using the pull tab; as well as a ceramic lighthouse, inside a small bag, that is to be removed and placed at the tip of the peninsula. The poem, located on the inside of the lid, was written by the artists, after a windy day of kite flying during a vacation week.”
Amanda D’Amico
Philly Pretzel, 2023
Crayola Model Magic, acrylic paint, cardstock, linen thread
“From a series of food-shaped books, this Philly Pretzel, covered in mustard, pays homage to a local favorite treat.”
Lou Ann Di Nallo
Knit for You, 2024
Ribbon, thread
“This book was designed and hand-knit by the artist on 2.5 mm knitting needles. The white “yarn” is masa paper which was hand-spun on a drop-spindle. The maroon wrapper is Japanese paper ribbon yarn. The closure is a paste paper bead made by the artist. The origami box is made with the artist’s original hand-marbled paper. It was made in memory of my mother who was an extraordinary knitter and creative soul. Each stitch was a prayer of gratitude and love for having been part of her life.”
Abigail Guidry
sanitized, 2024
Face masks, embriodery floss, suede
“During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I took comfort in hiding my face from the public. sanitized is a meditation on retired masks from when the CDC was recommending cotton for everyday protection.”
Sharon Hildebrand
Block Stitch, 2024
Wool, animal fur
“A few years ago, I became interested in needle felting. I began by making small three-dimensional forms such as balls and vegetables which I strung into garlands and hung around the house, and cute little animals which I sat on bookshelves and in windowsills. With the Material World assignment, I decided I wanted to use wool to make a book and to use wet felting to make the pages of the book. In previous work, I have made concertinas with row homes as my subject. I love the things that make each house unique such as differences in cornices, and brick work around the windows and doors, and they lend themselves easily to the concertina book form. I needle felted a few elements important to my life into the houses and I used hair from my dog Tucker to make the little Westie, as well as adding a bit of it into the clouds.”
Meg Kennedy
There are No Words, 2024
Wooden yarn spool, thread, glass seed beads
“The roll for the scroll is a vintage wooden yarn spool found in a thrift shop. The scroll is embroidered with cotton and metallic embroidery thread and glass seed beads on the taffeta underskirt of a c. 1915 tea dress that was purchased at a garage sale.
The rust stains on the taffeta reminded me of the veining found on parchment. Since the theme of the exhibit was to reimagine the materials for a book, rather than using words or the initial caps usually seen on illuminated manuscripts, I chose to use stitched strokes, punctuation marks, images, and numbers. I invented stories about what the symbols meant to the whole, but those are my stories. Make up your own!”
Valeria Kremser
good things come in small packages, 2024
Bubble wrap, postal stamps, candy wrappers
“I created a long stitch binding with bubble wrap pages, text cut from mailers, and canceled stamps of bugs because they are also good small things. The sewing cord is folded Dum Dum wrappers that were used as filler in a box of art supplies I bought almost 20 years ago.
The last four years of my life have been filled with many packages. I was an expecting mom and needed to get everything the little one would need, and I received many lovely gifts for him from dear friends. The onslaught of packages has continued as my little one grows because although the world has returned to normal now, I have no time to get things he needs. And of course, the best small package I got was my son.”
Karen Lightner
Grief, 2024
Packing paper
“I recently found myself at a six-day murder trial, supporting friends whose young adult son was murdered two years ago. It was heartbreaking. I was greatly impacted by the experience, although I know the family’s pain is far greater. The messy grief that was overwhelmingly present in the court-room inspired this book.
This book uses a modular origami structure with circular Turkish Map Folded pages and was developed by paper artist Lisa Giles, and Annette Maurer and Melissa Silk of STEAM-pop. Their paper, “A Synthesis of Sectors”, was presented at the Bridges 2019 Conference at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.”
Elizabeth McHugh
Even Bohan by Kalonymous ben Kalonymous, 2024
Aluminum flashing, electrical tape, jeweler’s wire
“Even Bohan is a 14th-century poem lamenting being born in the wrong body. It is considered one of the earliest examples of gender dysphoria and transgender identity. The poet, Kalonymous ben Kalonymous, was a distinguished Jewish philosopher and translator who, in the poem, talks about how painful it was to be in the body they were in without the possibility of transformation.
The idea of using materials that are not “bookish” to a form that we don’t typically associate with books really echoed the transgender experience for me. I chose the content and colors to reflect the transgender struggle and literally hammered the words into the material to create a book with presence. A book that is sharp around the edges and shiny and difficult to ignore.”
Melanie Mowinski
LOST, 2024
Wayward mylar balloons, fused found plastic, broken cables of connection, forgotten Letraset, thread, binders board, paper
“In December 2023, I visited a non-touristy section of Jamaica for a friend’s 50th anniversary. Every morning my husband and I exercised and swam at Lysson’s Beach—part public and private beach near our accommodation. The contrast between the two sides of the beach startled me. The private section looked like any beach you see in a magazine: clean, raked, and nearly pristine with picnic benches and tidy restrooms. The public beach? Strewn with plastic bottles, old tires, tooth-brushes, pill bottles, and other bottles. A beach clean-up would take truckloads of waste away. Who knows the last time this beach was maintained. I watched a tube of tooth-paste float by me while I swam. This is not limited to this tiny beach on Jamaica.
When I visit my family in Florida, beach entrances invite me to take a bucket and pick up trash as I walk the shore. Sea glass and seashells might be a thing of the past. When I returned to my landlocked home, I vowed to regularly pick up trash along a three-mile section of road that I walk regularly. Every couple of months I fill a 50-gallon bag with water bottles, soda cans, spent lottery tickets, fast food debris, nips, and all kinds of random shit [sic]. And I live in a rural part of New England. This book, LOST, was crafted from some of my finds, “treasures” waiting to become something. Ultimately, this book is about lost connection to our home, Planet Earth.”
Maria G. Pisano
Lost Memories, 2024
Film negatives and comb binder
“Negatives with missing details are used to represent the lost memories of places visited, as negatives are no longer in normal use to print photos. The ease and portability of digital cameras have created a glut of pixels that are sent to the cloud and are mostly lost and forgotten over a period of time, as computers change and are not updated, or images are not saved in another permanent mode.”
Rosae Reeder
Waiting for the Light, 2024
Shrink film, inkjet, Tombo Marker, UV Resin, waxed thread
“I imagine these pages being found and kept as an artifact that stands the test of time. We wait for the light whenever something dark hovers over us. This creation is a reminder that the light will always come.”
Jennifer Rosner
Orange Wool Book, 2024
Felted wool cover, woven and fulled wool pages, sewn with linen thread incorporating glass beads
White Wool Book, 2024
Felted wool cover, woven and fulled wool pages, sewn with wool sock yarn incorporating shell beads
Lisa Scarpello
A Gift for You: Read The Ribbon, Volumes I & II, 2024
Ribbon, thread
“A Gift For You: Read The Ribbon, Volumes I & II Ribbon from the Collection of James D Miller. These two books are made from gift wrap ribbon. They are sewn together and in some cases, Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) is used as an adhesive. Ribbon is used as a “throw-away”, ubiquitous material.
I have created two books with the intent for the reader to “read the ribbon;” the story is the relationship between design, color, and material.”
Thomas Parker Williams and Mary Agnes Williams
Sound of the Sea, 2024
Plywood, steel balls, ink, letterpress printed
“Sound of the Sea is an artist book edition featuring an original hand-painted illustration (for each of 4 copies) by TPW and a letterpress-printed original poem by MAW. It is also a percussion instrument designed for use in music compositions and meditative sound baths.”
Jen Zarro
Mixtape: Really Here to Stay, 2024
Plastic cassette tape holder, packing tape transfers, adhesive tapes, paper
“An explosion book made of adhesive tape bursts out of this plastic cassette tape holder; at center are two Infinity Flippers. Song titles, words, and imagery come from packing tape transfers of late-1970s cassette tape advertisements in Rolling Stone magazine, all of which promised infinite, everlasting, life-like sound that endures “forever”. Then as now, technologies and capitalist advertising harness deep human desires and fears. The promise of infinite endurance may resonate for some of us like a song or a prayer: Stay Here Forever.”
Kristin Ziegler
Elegy of a Peep, 2024
Feathers, tulle, eggshell, ribbon, thread
“A few weeks before Material World’s due date, I woke to find two of my Silkie hens and three chicks hunkered by my porch steps. A black bear had visited during the night, destroyed the coop, and snacked on the fertile eggs, two new peeps, and a mama hen inside. Elegy to a Peep is my lament. They were fragile and feathery. Their time in the world was short. I couldn’t protect them.”
The Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers 